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Who knew that Ten Ton Hammer's Ben de la Durantaye and Reuben
"Sardu" Waters were planning a romantic getaway at Gamescom in Cologne,
Germany? Certainly not Ben and Sardu! Find out how easily a little
miscommunication can lead to big problems in today's
href="http://tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/aug/17">
Loading... Bride-to-be.

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The
Pulse

You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (What
is The Pulse?).

Sardu and I are getting married. Trust me, its a big of a surprise to
us as it is to you. Maybe bigger.

We didnt plan it. In fact, we didnt even know we were gay, but it
seems that has little to do with it as the hotel were staying at in
Germany thinks otherwise. Im not sure who told them but it is firmly
what they believe. No, we didnt show up holding hands. No, we didnt
giggle as we tickle-chased each other up the stairwell. So I have to
think this belief came from an outside source. Maybe a coworkers
practical joke?

Allow me to elucidate as to why Im telling you that Germany thinks
Sardu and I are engaged to be wed.

I showed up at the hotel here in Cologne at 11am local time (thats 5am
EDTmy native timezone). I presented myself and my booking number. The
gal behind the desk smiled and tapped away at the computer. She was
attractive, so I gave her the old sexy Ben stare. Little did I know
her smile back wasnt that of reciprocated romance about to bud, but
more likely one of Awww, hes so in love with Sardu, he cant contain
his emotions.

She gave me my keycard and I asked her to mark Sardus name down as he
would be showing up in a couple of hours. I asked her to give him a key
and show him up to the room when he arrived.

Now when I made the booking a month or two ago, I indicated the room
was for two. In a normal situation when a booking is made this way, at
least in North America (our European friends can perhaps shed some
light on standard protocol here in Germany), a room for two means two
beds unless otherwise indicated. So, you can well imagine my shock as I
exhaustedly opened the door to our room, ready to fall into bed to
catch a powernap to ease some jet lag, dropped my bags to the floor,
flopped onto the bed, closed my eyes briefly, and quickly jumped out of
bed upon the realization that the bed I had just fallen onto was the
only bed in the room. I scurried about the room, checking the closets,
under the bed, behind the curtains, in the bathtub, desperately trying
to find the second bed I knew had to be in the room somewhere.

After closing the desk drawer hoping to find a hidden desk-bed in my
last insane attempt at denial I realized there had to have simply been
a misunderstanding.

I ran back downstairs to the concierge and gave her another, though
somewhat filtered, sexy Ben stare and told her that there had been a
mistake. I was expecting another guy to come join me, and we had booked
the room for two. She smiled again. Yes, sir. Would you like some
champagne sent up?

NO! I exclaimed somewhat vehemently, I mean the type of room is
wrong. There are two of us, and I dont believe theres going to be
enough room.

In the end, it was all a matter of miscommunication. What I had assumed
to be a perfectly normal booking for two professional colleagues had
been interpreted by someone else as a romantic weekend dude love
getaway. And while I adore Sardu as a coworker, I cant say Ive ever
considered picking out curtain patterns with him. The sobering thought
though, is that if I was able to mislead someone to that degree
completely unintentionally, how easy is communication broken in other
areas of life?

As gamers, are we at a disadvantage when trying to communicate our
thoughts to developers as to the types of games we enjoy? The problems
we have with existing games? Whos that person along the chain of
information wholl step in and say no, theyre not gay editor lovers
on an all-boys journey through the German countryside, theyre just two
guys going to gamescom?

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day

In a hot "in before Gamescom" exclusive, we
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ffxiv/preview/aug-2010-hands-on">revealed
a ton about Final Fantasy XIV
today. If you'd like a chance to chat about FFXIV with our community,
and perhaps even the preview's author, contributing writer and
Final
Fantasy junkie extraordinaire, Ralsu, you're in luck. Head over to our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52939">Final
Fantasy XIV forum.

==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread

"Now that I know there
is at
least some logic to the controls (and a prayer that SE might include
and "alternate" control-set more similar to current MMO's) I think I'm
going to give it a go, power through the unfamiliarity with
movement/combat/interaction and see if I can enjoy this franchise as
much as all of you seem to have done."

HANDS-ON
PREVIEWS

Ten Ton Hammer Contributing Writer Ralsu recently traveled to San
Francisco to take part in a special pre-GamesCom hands-on preview of
Final Fantasy XIV. New details on the much talked about FFXIV control
scheme, two never before seen cities, and our first ever experience
with level 40 grouped content highlight our newest Final Fantasy XIV
Hands-On Preview!

Lineage continues to move forward with their newest update, Crack of
Time. Ten Ton Hammer sat down with Senior Producer Chris Mahnken of
NCsoft to discuss Lineage's ongoing 12 plus years, the new update and
its content, and whats in store in the future.

FEATURES

Perfect World Entertainment has been home to several successful
free-to-play MMOGs, but their newest entry may be their most popular
yet. Battle of the Immortals boasts impressive graphics and some very
deep game mechanics, but are the associated costs to compete too high?
Join Jason Medawky Bolton this week as he chronicles his journey to
immortality.